I didn’t really know how I was going to go about creating the buildings for my scene but I knew I had a few options, I could either model them myself and import them into unreal, use a block-out feature such as the model grid and slowly refine the shape and introduce detail into it or I could pull modular building assets from quixel bridge and assemble the building that way.
I tried using the block-out into refining method however I soon realised that it was taking me quite a while to even put down quite simple shapes, this was most likely due to my inexperience with the engine but I didn’t like the pace at which I was working. If both other ways wouldn’t have worked out I was more than happy to model the buildings myself as at this point I was getting quite used to maya, however I decided to use the modular assets to save on time as it was around this time in the project that I wasn’t able to work on it as much due to health issues. Fortunately due to the bug earlier I was working on my own computer anyways but I wasn’t able to spend nearly as much time working on the environment as I had previously, especially considering I still had the asset to finish off.
I managed to create the building in the picture above in only about an hour or so, if I were to do this again now it would most likely take considerably less time. For now I did not mind the way the modular assets looked and with a little bit of tweaking and adding assets to patch some holes/imperfections between the meshes I got a decent looking pair of buildings that made up the homestead.
I began placing quixel bridge assets into my level and slowly populated it with detail. To help aid my narrative I included assets which would be commonly associated with the medieval period, as well as typical objects one could find around farms. I wanted to conveyed the ‘Fantasy’ theme of my project mostly through my asset, having a strong contrast between it and the rest of the scene, for this reason all references to high fantasy were very subtle in my scene so far.
Once I got the majority of the assets in place and the homestead was beginning to look more lively, I moved onto the lighting and post processing. Throughout my scene I ended up using a few different sources of light but the most prominent one was the skylight as it illuminated the whole scene. I experimented with different intensities, camera exposure levels and light orientations throughout working on the project.
I would have liked to spend a bit more time on this part of the project however I did not have much time left as the deadline was approaching really fast. I had fallen quite far behind due to my illness and because of this I prioritised finishing the scene over further experimenting with the light.